July

2nd July

Dave has brought some more planks for the borders that he collected from a family member

 Mrs H has found some beans that are ready to pick

Onions, too

July 8th

Visit to the LG today discovered the area surrounding the asparagus bed is just covered in weeds. Decided to pull out the weeds and then cover the area not in use for growing this year.

Weeds

Weeding

Chard is ready again for picking

750g of chard today

700g of spinach

800g of broad beans picked today

I decided to blanch the beans and also the spinach and freeze them to be cooked at when needed.

The chard I decided to cook as I would cook spinach and potato.

Recipe: Chard Aloo

Preparation Time: 10 mins                      

Cooking Time: 30-40 mins                       

Serves: 4

Ingredients

·       500g Spinach leaf washed

·       2 tablespoons cooking oil

·       1 large onion – peeled and finely sliced

·       1 teaspoon mustard seeds

·       1 teaspoon cumin seeds

·       1-2 teaspoon of finely chopped ginger

·       3-4 cloves garlic finely chopped

·       1 teaspoon ground coriander

·       1 teaspoon ground cumin

·       1 teaspoon turmeric

·       ½ teaspoon red chili powder or 1 fresh chili and salt to taste

·       3-4 fresh finely chopped tomatoes or half can of chopped tomatoes

·        300g medium size potatoes – boiled in skin and peeled

·       1 teaspoon garam masala

Method

1.     Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When mustard seeds begin to pop add cumin seeds. Add onion, salt and sauté onions until soft and lightly browned.
2.     Add ginger, garlic, green chilli and cook for 1-2 minutes. Stir in turmeric, ground cumin and coriander.
3.        Break potatoes with your fingers to size required and add to the onions and cook until potatoes are almost lightly brown. Add tomatoes and cook for few minutes
4.     Add the chard and cook until the all the water is almost evaporated.Finally sprinkle garam masala.

     

15th July

Hooray - courgettes are ready to pick. I wonder how many kilos we shall have this year ? Last year certainly was a huge glut of them in our LG.

The pumpkin variety planted this year is different from last year. This year the pumpkins are yellow from the start, last year they were green to begin with, then turned yellow and then orange.

Last year's green pumpkin.

Turning yellow and then orange.

Last years' pumpkin colour changes over time.

Here is the courgette, pumpkin and squash bed, it is like an overgrown jungle, spreading in all directions, and below is how it looked exactly four weeks ago. 

                                                                                          

Sweet corn plants are taking off ok.

Peas and mangetout are nearly over now.

                                                          The sprouts netted are doing well.


17th July
Today is a very warm day to be at the LG, but work has to be done. Priority to pull out all the onions as they are now ready for harvesting. 

Onions 

Last November I planted winter white, red and shallots onion sets. Most of them have now begun to go to seed, producing wonderful round heads of seeds.

So, in the afternoon heat I began to pull out the onions, they had all apparently come to the surface so no pulling was required.

 Nearly all out

What a harvest, the whole LG smelt of onions.

                                          Next the garlic, planted same time as the onions.

Plenty of garlic

The bed is now cleared of onions and garlic, and weeds all pulled out. I wonder what will be grown here next year.

This was my potato bed last year, and I have rotated the crops as one is supposed to do annually. 

As well as harvesting, there are other jobs that need attention. The shed roof has been leaking, so on this sunny warm, too hot for me day, Mr S has stripped the old roofing felt and hopefully with some help of an LG friend new roofing felt will be tacked on during the week.

Spinach is ready for the kitchen

              The rescued sprouts re-rooted and re-planted under the net are doing great

 This is a huge strawberry bed, looking so healthy, but lacks strawberries.

                            The artichokes started off so well, healthy and green 
                                          and then got attacked by black fly. 
                                  I sprayed them with fly spray and soapy water, 
                                                 and the result is as above.





 

June 2017

≈

2nd June

Dave has been collecting planks for us, to replace all the old rotten wooden borders. Just look and see what he has found in a barn clearance he recently did.

 Wow, what amazingly strong and heavy duty borders they will create.

That's it for now. Mr S has got a job to do, stripping the old and replacing with new planks.


3rd June


Ready to replace the old borders, here we go.

  
They are so heavy, definitely a job for two strong people.

The courgette, pumpkin and squash bed is almost done.

A friendly LG gardener gave me a rake out of his shed, and said you'll not find one like this one anywhere....'cos I made this'.

Wow, how amazing is that.

He then gave me a brand new hoe, which he said he never used, so I could put it to use in my garden. An old rake and a new hoe, how about that. I now need to learn how to use such gardening tools.

Well, I raked this bed, and would like Mr S to make an Asparagus bed in the middle for some some asparagus I have started from seed in the conservatory. They are almost ready to be planted out now.

And here we have it.

The asparagus take three to four years before they can be harvested. I was telling my son this and he looked at me and said and the lease on the LG is for two years. Hah! No there is no lease, we have it now for as long we can manage.

There are some LG tenants who have been her for 37 years. Gosh, can you believe this ? I find it hard to believe.

Well at this stage of my life, I would love to think I have 37 healthy years ahead of me...

So, this is almost ready now for my asparagus to go in.


4th June



Ok, levelling my asparagus bed.

 And they are in...

Now I have to wait for 3 to 4 years before I can enjoy this crop.



4th June

Dwarf pear tree has pears on it.

Planted chard from seed and they have begun to come through.

This is the bed I created with broccoli and brussel sprouts last week. After having looked after the shoots in the conservatory and then repotting them and hardening in the garden before putting them in the LG bed...all been eaten away. This made me so sad and upset...

Potatoes are doing great, and have really filled all the bed where they were planted.

Peas and few mange-tout looking quite healthy.

 Broad beans looking good.

 The courgettes, pumpkin and squash bed is beginning to take off.

Asparagus not looking too healthy, but i think they will be ok.

11th June

Peas and mangetout are beginning to show.

Broad Beans looking quite healthy

Courgette, pumpkin and squash bed is beginning to flourish

18th June

A handful of strawberries from the strawberry tower

22nd June

I think the courgette are going to take over again like last year

Chard is really taking off and I also planted kale seeds next to it at the same time and as soon as the plants came through the soil, they were eaten like the broccoli and sprouts to the ground.

This year I put in some sweet corn seeds and look, a success.

Sweet corn

27th June

For the last few days we have had lot of rain. Great for the LG.

Visiting the LG today just showed how much everything had grown just over a week.

At the same time the whole area has sprouted weeds. Today is weeds pulling day.

Weeding

Weeding

Strawberry bed - wow ! Just covered in runners and plants

Chard and spinach
 is ready for its first harvest

Today I picked 1kg 700g of chard

700g of spinach

All so fresh and organic.

Only a handful of strawberries from a huge bed

White radish

30th June

Although most of the broccoli and brussels plants were eaten to the roots, some are beginning to show signs of life. So, I decided to pull them up and put them in the soil and cover the surrounding soil with ground covering. This will hopefully keep the slugs and weeds at bay.  Next, I covered the area with a net, to keep animals away.

Peas look so healthy

Not many but, are ready for picking